Pay Equity Among College Graduate STEM Workers: Gender Wage Gaps and Advanced Degree Wage Premiums

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: STEM: Making STEM Accessible in the Face of Adversity

Abstract

This study examines wages by workers’ baccalaureate fields, highest degree levels, and demographics. Analyses of the 2009-2018 ACS data on US college graduate STEM workers age 26-35 reveal field-specific openness to academic trainings and demographic wage differences. While the bio/life sciences field is open to diverse aacademic trainings and equal in wages, in physical/chemical sciences doctorate-holding women earn as less as baccalaureate-only men. In engineering, inclusive of baccalaureate-only workers, non-US citizen workers earn as much as their US citizen coworkers, whereas in computer/mathematics, open to diverse baccalaureate fields, Asian and non-US citizen workers earn more than their white and US citizen coworkers. These findings point to field-specific implications for the STEM careers of minorities, non-STEM major college graduates, and baccalaureate-only workers.

Author

• Yun Kyung Cho, University of Wisconsin - Madison